Blog: Let's play a gameLet's play a game
Ok, people, let's play a game. I'm often curious about what people have for dinner. It seems so impossible to plan for. I'm 27 years old and still can't plan more than a few hours ahead about what we're going to eat. I am always grasping at straws trying to come up with stuff. My parents have received many a last minute, "if you had 20 mintues to make dinner, what would you make?" call and even more (only slightly) less last minute "what are you guys having for dinner?" calls. So I'm going to just list the dinner menu from the Wong house this last week and I'm hoping you'll do the same in the comments. If you served cereal, no shame, people! Don't let that stop you from commenting. I've still got freezer meals people kindly prepared for me (having a baby and what not.) Oh, and Kevin cooks too. That helps. I'm really hoping to get some "as easy as cereal" suggestions from this so when my meatloaf supply runs out there will be other options. All right, this week we had:
Sunday: Hamburgers
Monday: Curried okra and roti
Tuesday: Black beans and corn salad with corn bread
Wednesday: Meat loaf, baked zuccini, and baked sweet potato fries
Thursday: (crock pot) Pork Roast with potatoes, carrots, onions, and apples with a side of biscuits
Friday: Whole-wheat waffles with strawberry syrup, nutella, peanut butter, and bacon (P.S. Sesika, we desperately need your recipe. These waffles were limp and floppy.)
Saturday: Pork Chops with fried apples, rice, and green beans
There's usually more rice in a typical Wong week, but I've been playing with freshly ground whole wheat flour lately. Thus all of the made from flour stuff. In writing this I discovered it's pretty hard to remember a whole week of meals. Feel free to leave blanks in your week, or if you're one of those fabulously organized, plan-ahead people you can give us your plans for this coming week.
posted by Talyn at
8:47 PM
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P.S. If you *really* want to be my best friend, you can create an account and put your recipes on this site. Kevin promises not to send you any spam.
I subscribed to emeals.com for 3 months to have complete meal ideas on hand. I've really enjoyed having those ideas to fall back on when I can't figure out what to write on the menu. A lot of the recipes are really quick to make.
I ate at work tonight and it was vegetable burgers. Definitely not my favorite but it was free, and I got paid while eating it, so I lived. :)
In an effort to aid answering that same question for ourselves, Kristin and I try to keep a food journal to remember what we've eaten:
http://foodexploration.tumblr.com/archive
(as you can see, I'm usually a month or two behind on posting what we've been eating); it's not much of a recipe resource yet, but maybe will give you some brainstorming ideas?
Here are a couple of recipes from allrecipes.com that I like to make from time to time:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-spaghetti-squash-with-beef-and-veggies/detail.aspx
(I make this one pretty much as-is)
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/hash-brown-hot-dish-stuffed-bell-peppers/detail.aspx
(Instead of frozen hash browns I use real potatoes chopped up into tiny pieces. Most of the time I don't stuff the peppers; instead I include chopped bell pepper and eat the stuff in tortillas. Homemade ones are the best!)
More often than not, I throw some chicken breasts onto the skillet with some carrots or potatoes or whatever veggies I have on hand. Cover and let simmer on med. heat for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Voila!
Oh, and Chicken salad sandwiches, made easy: Combine the contents of one can of chunk chicken breast, 2 stalks celery (chopped), 1 apple (chopped), and enough mayonaise to barely coat everything. If desired, include 1/2 cup of grapes cut into halves. Serve between two slices of bread w/ lettuce.
Often, I check out my friend's recipe blog. She puts her entire month's worth of dinners on there. I like to check it to get ideas and recipes. All of her stuff is really yummy too! http://hungryhomemaker.blogspot.com
I hope that helps. We also like to have breakfast for dinner about once a week. That's super easy to whip up in 20 minutes and the kids love it!
I utterly loathe dinner. I hate planning it. I hate making it. I hate cleaning up after it. To make things worse, Hugh's current schedule means that he is absent for the planning, making, eating, and cleaning up more nights that he is present. If I were childless, I would eat granola and yogurt for dinner every night. As it is, we are quite often plan-less around here, so I can't honestly remember what we had every night this last week. I know we had spaghetti with meat sauce one night and brown rice with beans and salsa twice. There was a round of bean and cheese quesadillas in there somewhere. We did have a more real dinner on Thursday--chicken stir-fry. Hugh and I enjoyed it. Both children refused to eat any and instead supped on peanut-butter and honey sandwiches.
Honestly, everybody is generally happiest around here when we have rice and beans. Both kids happily eat heaping bowlfuls and then ask for more. Since I just make the beans in the croc pot and the rice in a rice cooker, there's not a lot for me to do during that torturous time right before dinner when Simon is grouchy and clings to my leg and cries if I try to do anything besides hold him. Hugh feels like he's back on his mission. Everybody wins.
On another note, here's a waffle recipe that we love: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/multigrain-waffles-recipe.html
I usually do my week of meal planning on Sunday and post it on Monday, using a combination of things I've pinned on Pinterest and tried and true recipes from family.My mom has been in town this week and she is kindly doing the cooking, so I haven't planned for 2 Sundays in a row. (I feel so spoiled!)
I have the memory of a fruit fly these days. I doubt I'd be able to remember what I actually cooked each day, but, instead of posting nothing, I opted to post the random things I do remember. For good measure, I'll throw in some stuff that I have planned for this week. It would take a while to include every link (I get most of my stuff off the internet), so, if you see something that catches your fancy, just let me know and I'll shoot you the recipe. (Also, everything on here is NON-CHEF friendly. I do not have the time, attention span, or desire to slave over a stove. No matter how fancy the title may sound, trust me, everything here is EASY - if I can do it, anyone can do it!
Here you go:
Kale chips (like real chips but healthy!)
Homemade tomato soup
Cheddar and chicken paninis
Curried chickpeas on jasmine rice (this one got rave reviews from the hubby)
Boiled kale with sauteed pearl onions (our next-door neighbor gave us a grocery bag full of kale from her garden - I had a kale smoothie this morning, it was actually yummy!)
Salmon wrapped in swiss chard (I think this is the first time I've ever eaten swiss chard - it actually survived my horrible gardening skills which says something about its hardiness and I was surprised by how tasty it was)
Pot roast (one of my favorites - so easy and scrum-diddly-umptious)
Roasted butternut squash (my new favorite squash recipe)
Crockpot pheasant
Wild rice with pecans, raisins, and green onions
Roasted beets (another favorite of mine - it's like eating candy for dinner, plus, it sometimes makes you pee purple - cool!)
Sauteed beet leaves (for years I've been tossing the leaves and roasting the beets not knowing that they're just as tasty and very easy to prepare)
Chickpea salad (surprisingly good - with a little help of an easy homemade dressing recipe)
Roasted tomatoes with olive oil and rosemary (I like to roast things :-p very easy and it makes the whole house smell delicious)
Chicken with tomatoes and kalamata olives (this one is on your recipe site)
Rachael Ray's French Dip with homemade au jus (a little more work than I'm usually willing to do but SO yummy)
The rest of these I haven't made yet and are on this week's menu:
Baby Red Rosemary Potatoes
Baby bok choy with cashews
Roasted honey ginger carrots
Quinoa and mango salad
Buckwheat with zucchini and mushrooms
asparagus-parmesan risotto
Greek-style salmon
Hope these help!
PS: Sometimes when I'm waiting in line at the grocery store and I see a cooking magazine, I'll flip through it and take pictures with my cell phone. Then, the next time I'm at the store, I just pull up the picture and get the ingredients. So much easier than having to write down the recipe and then write down the ingredients on another grocery list.
Go get a Real Simple cookbook. Everything is fast and has less than 10 ingredients, most of which are pantry or freezer staples (well, once you start stocking puff pastry :)). It's my go-to last minute cookbook. We ate steak with fried rice, then had leftover steak, cheese & fruit wraps, potato pancakes after a big Easter brunch, hawaiian haystacks, chicken divine, and leftover chicken with noodles & baby spinach. I usually plan for one beef, one or two chicken, one vegetarian and one leftover dinner. Then I supplement with whatever starch/ grains and veggies I have. That way I kind of plan and kind of wing it based on how things are going. It allows to me shop sales & in season veggies while still making up my mind last minute and have things on hand to minimize rush hour trips to the grocery store.
Good luck :)
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